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Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor’s cross-code boxing versus mixed martial arts showdown moved a step closer after both men talked up the prospect. However the contest, likely to take place in Las Vegas, will need to be sanctioned by the chairman and commissioners of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Telegraph Sport was told on Sunday night.

Five-weight boxing world champion Mayweather, 39, retired in September 2015 with an unbeaten 49-fight record, having fought Manny Pacquiao in May 2015 in the richest fight in history, which grossed $700million. But talk of a boxing match with UFC lightweight champion McGregor has persisted, with it been called “the billion dollar fight”.

McGregor recently obtained a boxing licence in California and, in his own irascible way, the 28-year-old Irishman has been calling the American out. Despite reservations about the legitimacy of such a fight, the pair are keen.

“Most likely the fight between me and Conor McGregor will happen,” Mayweather said live on American television while attending the Carl Frampton-Leo Santa Cruz WBA featherweight title fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. “That’s the only fight that will get me back in the ring. He’s going to do a job on his side and we are going to do a job on my side and hopefully all the fans in the UK come over and support me.”

Mayweather revealed the weight for the contest would be “between 145lb and 150lb” and added: “I don’t know [when it will be]. I need to communicate with my team, the fight hasn’t been made yet, but it is all about entertainment so hopefully we can make it happen.”

Conor McGregor has called out Floyd MayweatherCredit:
AP

McGregor said: “I believe this is the first billion dollar fight. I think it will happen at the end of this year or the start of next year.”

Bob Bennett, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, told The Daily Telegraph: “I would say the sport McGregor is in, mixed martial arts, and the boxing that Mayweather does are two different sports with two different skill sets. There have been on low-level boxing cards MMA fighters that have a limited MMA career and transformed into boxers. But when you’re speaking about the elite of the elite in an MMA world and professional boxing world you’re talking about two different sports. That would be up to the chairmen and the commissioners to sanction, but I do think that would be very controversial. They are two different sports.”